Why is it tokenism if a game has a female protag?

[StormMistress]

Seriously I don’t get this logic? Is this just a fringe part of the gaming community? Why is it when a new popular game is revealed with a female protag so many guys scream tokenism or it’s woke or whatever? I mean women are literally half the population of earth so it makes sense to include female protags alongside male protags. It opens up new perspectives and opportunities for storytelling which I really enjoy. Plus as a woman I like to have a perspective that I can relate to more from time to time.

Honestly it’s not like you have a shortage of good male protags so why is it when developers decide to try a narrative on a woman’s perspective it’s met with negativity mostly in the online community?

[Anonymous]

I don't think people have a problem with female or black or whatever protagonists, what people have an issue with is disingenuity.

When talking about female protagonists the Ripley character from Alien will normally be cited (as I am doing here) as an example of strong female leads. But even the iconic Ripley was originally a male character, making her female was a deliberate conscious choice to promote females as leads and as heroines, but she was not perceived as a token female because they did a good job, she seemed geniune and believable.

This was ground breaking by the way and here we are 40 years later and I have to question has there ever been a 100% geniunely female protagonist action heroine?

In the modern world we are questioning what gender even means so putting a cis gendered female into a traditional male gender role isn't going to cut the mustard anymore.

When we are constantly bombarded with so many obviously disingenuous token characters, such as those found in the Rings of Power which has literally just been released you have to expect there to be backlash and fatigue from this bullshit.

Is all of this a problem? Should there be female protagonists? Yes, absolutely, we all agree (well ok most of us agree), but it needs to be authentic.

[Sixgunsound]

Game producers correctly, at least historically, anticipate a significantly more numerous male cohort as customers and end users than female. The community is self-aware of this; oddly enough they have no problem when female characters in games are scantily clad sex objects which play to the desires of the target audience and majority of customers but when they start to encroach on traditionally male roles such as soldiering like Gina Carano’s character did in Mandalorian, they have to go. Personally I would want to make a game that would have the widest appeal as possible so I can sell the most copies of it, but when long-standing customers have the kind of reaction you’ve mentioned, at the end of the day they’re in business to make money not social justice. I’m not stating whether that is correct or incorrect, just that it is what it is.

[Sixgunsound]

Thanks for MHO

[Kaneki05]

Tokenism is obvious when it happens though I am sure many call it tokenism when it's not. But Tomb Raider for example is the most obvious example of clear tokenism and I love the most recent series of them. Don't make the games bad but everyone knows how Lara was made and what for.
And that's not even saying Lara is bad character, no in fact she's great and again I do love her in the modern series. But again we all the origin of her was tokenism.

Samus again tokenism it's not a coincidence that she's in a metal suit but if you manage to complete the game correctly you get to see her body shown off. Many old characters tbh were created for tokenism reasons.

And then of course many games which aren't like Hellblade.

[Guanfei]

It's not tokenism if a game has a female protagonist, it is tokenism if a character has been created only to be a female, just to tick a case in the woke checklist.

Women in games exist appeared at the same time as gaming, and most of them, before, were written as characters in a whole game who happened to be women.

Now, most women in games are (badly) written to be women first, then fitted in a game somehow. The main point is that she's a woman, and stronger than anything, especially men, in the game. The women can't be weaker or dumber than men, they can't lose to men, they can't be saved by men, they can't be anything less than men in any way. That just make tasteless characters without any struggle, surpassing anyone else, and you know they will win in the end because they simply can't lose.

Simple as that. They write character to be women, before written them to be interesting.

[Berethor]

Women half the population but majority of gamers are men, also if a game is about war, vast majority of soldiers in the world are men, and if it historical setting then even more so, men are also stronger than women, so it's hard to make a female protagonist realistic.

[Anonymous]

Its only woke when you pander to the woke crowd. I can recomend Senran Kagura. Great games, all female characters (the only playable male character in the entire series is a DLC character in the second 3DS game)

For some reason, the type of people who claim dudes only like playing as straight white dudes seems to forget there are lot of great Japanese games with great female characters. And for some reason, the same type of tend to hate on games with hot female characters while at the same time act like you are bad for not liking seeing ugly female characters in games. They are hypocrites.

[TonyMetal___86]

Don't know what a protag or tokenism means haha
Anyways if women are half the population, it doesn't means that they can get whatever they want, i can be one man leading 20 women so that's not the case, i think that it's better if women and men just learn that they are different and doesn't question why they can't get what the other gender gets..

A man can't be a woman and a woman can't be a man...

[NathanDavis]

that's just idiotism...

from some individuals here and there in the gaming community, not a generalized thing...

these idiots are just louder about it, but not a majority

[USLegionary]

Women have always been in games. Perhaps if game companies and movie companies worried more about quality rather than wokeness they wouldn't have to blame misogyny for their failed product.

[OddBeMe]

On a lot of games like Fallout, you can pick your gender.

But lets not bandy about the issue. the Buyers of video games are men. Women are an untapped market, but its hard to make single games for everyone.

[JustiReno]

I refuse to play any game I gotta lie down and take dick! Disgusting!

[Anonymous]

Because in most cases when the protag is female, she is created in the image of a man with male traits and behaviors, which just comes off as silly and pathetic.

[007kingifrit]

because that's the main reason companies add female protags. it isn't inherently true, but it is in 2022

[msc545]

Mostly because in reality omen cannot physically do the things that the characters in these games and videos do.

[Harbringer26]

Inconsolable malcontents will complain regardless.

[Havthrills]

I have never heard of this.

[Dinosaursandanime65]

It’s only valid if the representative is toxic